The invention relates to a propellant charge for the reduction of base eddying or drag of an artillery shell and which has a centrally disposed ignition conduit and an ignition device for the charge disposed in the conduit.
Such propellant charges diminish, by pyrotechnical gas production, the base eddying, drag or resistance occurring in a shell in flight and thereby increase the range of the shell. For example, an artillery shell of 155 mm caliber can, with the aid of such a propellant charge (base bleed effect), cover distances of more than 30 km. The propellant charges have ignition means which are activated by hot propellant charge gases during firing of the shell and which in turn ignite the base bleed propellant charge. It was noted in connection with known propellant charges that this ignition process does not occur with a sufficiently high degree of accuracy.
A propellant charge is already known from German patent application DE P No. 34 37 250.4, corresponding to DEOS No. 34 37 250, published Apr. 4th, 1986, in which the wall of the propellant charge which bounds the ignition conduit shows an ignition-enhancing layer or a roughened structure having an increased surface in order to improve the ignition process.